Training

Programs of Study at OPR

There are four levels of certification in demography available to students enrolled
at Princeton: the Ph.D. in Demography, a Departament Degree with Specialization in
Population, a Joint-Degree Program in Demography and Social Policy, and a Certificate in Demography .

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Ph.D. in Demography

A small number of entering graduate students with a strong interest in population
and a strong quantitative background, often in statistics, mathematics, or environmental
sciences (though not limited to these fields), will be accepted into a course of
study leading to a Ph.D. in Demography. For the Program in Population Studies, applicants
are required to submit scores from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE),
and for those students whose native language is not English
and who have not had advanced training at an English-speaking institution, the
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is also required.
Application
should be made to Population Studies (POP).

As part of this program of graduate training, students are required to demonstrate
basic competence in mathematics and statistics, as well as mastery of demography
and a related discipline (e.g., sociology, economics, or social policy). Specific
requirements include completion of the General Examination, a research paper of
publishable quality, and the Ph.D. dissertation. The General Examination consists
of three examinations, usually taken over the course of two years, in which the
student must demonstrate proficiency in basic demographic theory and methods as
well as proficiency in two of the following fields of concentration: economic demography,
family demography, fertility/fecundity, health, historical demography, mathematical/statistical
demography, migration/immigration, mortality, population and development, population
and environment, population policy, poverty/child wellbeing, and urbanization.
More detailed information on degree requirements may be obtained from the
Director of Graduate Studies or the
administrator for the program.

Department Degree with Specialization in Population

The majority of students who study at the OPR are doctoral candidates in the Departments of
Economics and
Sociology
who choose to specialize in population. To do so, they must complete
the general examination in demography and write a dissertation on a demographic
subject, supervised by program faculty, as part of their departmental requirements.
In some additional departments, such as
History or
Politics, the
general examination in demography may also be accepted as partial fulfillment of
degree requirements, and students in these departments may also elect to write their
doctoral dissertations on a topic related to demography.

The degree earned would be a Ph.D. in the discipline, e.g., Economics or Sociology.
Application should be made to the relevant department, indicating Demography as
the Area of Interest, see Where/How Should I Apply?.

Joint-Degree Program

To qualify for a joint degree, the student must fulfill all home departmental requirements,
including passing the general examination in demography and writing a dissertation
on a topic related to the study of population. In addition, the candidate for the
joint degree must pass a general examination in one additional specialized field
of population beyond what is required for the standard departmental degree.
Permission to do the joint degree is obtained from the
Director of Graduate Studies
for the Program in Population Studies. It is not necessary
to apply for the joint degree as part of the application to Princeton. Instead,
the decision to apply for the joint degree is usually made by students during their
second or third year of study.

Certificate in Demography

The Office of Population Research, in connection with the Program in Population
Studies, offers a non-degree Certificate in Demography to those who successfully
complete four graduate courses in population studies: POP 501/ECO 571/SOC 531/,
POP 502/ECO 572/SOC 532, one Independent Reading course (POP 700 level), and one elective course pertaining to some aspect
of population. The first two are the basic graduate courses in demography: POP 501
is offered in the fall semester and is a prerequisite for POP 502, which is offered
in the spring semester. The Independent Reading course entails the completion of an individual or joint
research project, under the supervision of an OPR faculty or research staff member.
A decision on the fourth course is made together with the Director of Graduate Studies.
Applicants are usually enrolled MPA students from the Woodrow Wilson School. The
certificate program is intended primarily for training scholars from other disciplines
and does not lead to an advanced degree at Princeton.